Catarina Mourão studied Music, Law and Film at Bristol University, where she received her MA. She is the founder of AporDOC, a Portuguese Documentary Association, and has taught Film and Documentary courses since 2000, including the first BA course in Documentary Filmmaking in Portugal at Instituto Politécnico de Tomar, Escola Superior de Tecnologias de Abrantes.
Together with Catarina Alves Costa, Mourão started Laranja Azul, an independent production company for creative documentary.
She is currently pursuing a practice based PhD in film at the University of Edinburgh.